Our National Public Broadcaster – The CBC – is threatened by the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation may cost more than a billion dollars a year in taxpayer money; but so what?

Documents revealed by WikiLeaks detail a proposed plan to require state-owned enterprises (or SOEs) to operate for profit. Canadian SOEs include the CBC and Canada Post. You may ask,

“What’s the problem with profit?”

That’s a valid question.

Why would we invest in an organization that can’t draw a profit?

The answer is that it is necessary for a country to have at least one unbiased voice that represents them over the airwaves that will guarantee objectivity and quality in reporting – free of commercial and political influence.

As a public enterprise – CBC should not be bought and sold and used as a medium to smear logo feces all over everything they broadcast (See CTV purchased by BELL Media).

Many of our writers are in Atlantic Canada. The writer writing this piece watches CTV’s “Breakfast Television” every morning while he crunches his bacon. He watches CTV2 because it’s one of only 3 channels he gets through the coax cable plugged into his television set. Why does he only get 3 channels? He studied marketing. After that first year of business school; he cut the cord halfway through his program.

No more cable TV.

Now it’s Netflix, YouTube, Crackle, and CBC Radio.

Ninety a month to the cable company for a solid internet connection. Get it upgraded to a faster package.

No need for TV. Media’s changed.

He couldn’t watch any media on any platform without having his eyes and ears overwhelmed with product placement and advertising.

It implies that any private corporation that can prove that the CBC or Canada Post (through subsidization by the Canadian Government) caused them any loss of revenue – can sue the Canadian Government!

By existing; they are guilty.

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As a young man, long before I was a cord-cutter, I would sit in our cabin on the Atlantic shoreline and listen to CBC radio while I had beers with my friends. No cable. No inter-web. Just Randy’s Vinyl Tap and Saturday Night Blues.

Do you really think it’s appropriate to take this iconic Canadian institution for granted and inundate it with commercial poppycock?

They may take some pauses between segments; but they take breaks to promote other CBC shows. They most certainly do not showcase the latest sale at whichever fast food restaurant is sponsoring this segment.

What about my weekly, unbiased listen to what’s up in Canadian Francophone music on A Prospos every Saturday from 6-7PM on CBC Radio One in Halifax.

French-Canadian rock music kicks ass. Rock music written in the French language kicks ass. One of our contributors, The Reverend, is a French-Canadian musician.

These shows are part of our country.

Would the following Fifth Estate documentary ever get produced if corporations were dictating programming? What about worrying about being sued by a company that produces candy? Assuming the secret documents released by WikiLeaks are accurate; could the CBC survive in court with Nestlé or HERSHEY’S if either entity felt they lost revenue as a result of the following documentary?

We don’t live in the United States. Let’s stop making up reasons to sue one another.